The Lesser Evils of Temptation
by Diritus
Summary: A young Orochimaru falls for a civilian living just outside of Kumogakure, engaging in a long distance love affair. Orochimaru muses over the differences in shinobi and civilian life as he loses himself in days-long sessions of self indulgence: sloth, gluttony, and lust all while learning a great deal about love (and tea.) OCxOro (I know ew an OC, but give it a chance. R&R please?)


**A/N: I redid the whole thing. All of it. The first encounter, I decided to change it. Getting deep into the non-canon territory of Orochimaru's family was not the right way to go for the start of this fic, it deterred too much from the point I wanted to make. Suceru is a great OC, and he definitely has a story to tell, but this is not the place for it. He might get his own fic later. Or maybe I'll do something with Mihebi and Makoto...but Suceru does not belong here.**

**I know what you guys are thinking, an OC with a canon character, woo-friggen-hoo, bring out the Sue! Let me just plead with you for a moment, and tell you that I agree. Most of the time, I really hate seeing fics that pair a canon character with an OC. Most of the time, it's told from the OC's PoV, and most of the time the canon character they're being paired with is obscenely OOC. I understand. I'm with you there. This fic isn't going to be like that...at least I hope not. It's told from the canon's PoV, and a LOT of research, time, and effort has been put into the OC. I hope the amount of work I've put in is reflected in the fic, and I hope the pacing is alright. I focused a lot on keeping canon characters in character (adjusted for their age, of course) and developing a strong OC. Please, read, rate, review, and hopefully enjoy. Thank you for giving this fic a chance.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, only Tetsuo.**

He didn't understand the logic behind what they were doing, but then again, he hardly ever understood the reasoning behind anything social that he was forced to participate in. Orochimaru's team had spent the last week or so trudging through the torrential rains, horrific lightning storms, and steep mountain terrain that would make most mountaineers cry. They had put up with cold weather, mud slides, little to no food, no shelter aside from unsteady rock alcoves, and what were they going to do now that they had finally arrived in Kumogakure? Take a nice hot shower, rest, and maybe sleep in if they were feeling particularly indulgent? Of course not. That would just be too easy on everyone involved. They were going to get themselves cleaned up, and go out for dinner and drinks.

Oh, it sounded like a dandy time to Jiraiya, and after a little convincing, even Tsunade was looking forward to a nice, well prepared meal, but Orochimaru couldn't be swayed. He just wanted to find an inn, take a shower, and collapse into bacteria soaked bedding until the sun rose and maybe a little after that. Could they leave him alone to do that? No. They did things as a team. Gods above forbid that they ever do anything separate for once. If two of the three wanted to stay up and eat, the third absolutely has to force themselves to stay awake long enough to down a considerable portion of their food, and maybe a drink or two before being allowed the sweet reprieve of sleep.

They had found an inn and taken showers, Orochimaru insisting on taking the first one to ensure he had ample hot water, wanting to raise his core body temperature so he could at least be comfortable on their dinner trip. He had to admit, after a hot shower, he felt considerably better. He got to free himself of his soggy, mud caked gear. When he put on his casual kimono, it felt like it weighed nothing compared to the dripping flak jacket and heavy pants colored a nasty brown rather than their usual black. It was almost a tolerable idea to get food after that, were it not for the fact that his eyes refused to stay open and alert, sagging to half-mast at any given chance and threatening to close completely.

Jiraiya had to help walk him along in a zombie like haze, unable to understand why Orochimaru was so tired, and Orochimaru said nothing about being a little dramatic in order to convince them to go home earlier than expected. If it took too much longer, he might just fake asleep at the table. Jiraiya was the soft enough type to take pity on him then, and might even carry him back to the room. That would be ideal. He might not have been as exhausted as he tried to make it seem, but his thoughts refused to turn from the idea of a soft bed.

They had opted, 'they' here meaning Jiraiya, to go to what turned out to be a higher-end place. The lighting was low and the music was soft and traditional. Thankfully, it was an off night, so there wasn't much of a wait. Not too many people were out living it up on a Tuesday evening, going to nice restaurants for good food and drink. This certainly settled well with Orochimaru, who had little to no patience for a crowd, let alone a restaurant crowd. At least with the place so empty, they were less likely to end up seated beside a loud table or the inevitable crying baby that seemed to loom at every public location, just waiting to ruin an evening.

They were seated at a coveted corner booth, a special request Orochimaru had made Jiraiya ask of the host there. He personally would never speak to the waitstaff if he didn't have to. He was terribly shy in public as it was, let alone when speaking to total strangers in a social situation such at dining out. He was the same way when it had come to teachers in school, communicating with them mostly through Jiraiya's louder mouth than his own. And as it had been then, it was now, telling the request first to jiraiya to have it relayed back to the waiter.

They took their seats, Orochimaru to the left of the other two with Jiraiya taking the middle, as it seemed a custom for them to do. Orochimaru browsed over the menu, looking at this particular location's 'unique' spin on the same thirty or so items that seemed to be offered at every restaurant ever, and the three or four truly unique pieces, wondering what he wanted to eat. He was hungry enough that it didn't matter much to him, and he had a craving for everything. When the waiter came around, everyone ordered their drinks to start off. Jiraiya and Tsunade opted for alcohol, something rather new and still exciting to the young team. Orochimaru, however, opted for tea. Nothing special, just the house brew. It would be something nice and hot, one of the few options that wasn't served iced.

After the painfully forced dialogue between himself and the waiter concerning his tea, he was finally left alone to browse the menu once more. He resolved himself on a rolled omelet garnished with peppers and mushrooms. Just as he was closing the menu, he took note of his teammate. The already massive boy was stretching his back as far as he could, eyes scanning over the crowd eagerly. Not even five minutes there, and already he was scouting for tail.

"What are you doing?!" Orochimaru seethed, delivering a dull blow to the man's thigh under the table, not enough to really hurt, but enough to jar him.

"I'm just getting a look around," came the simple reply, the blow doing nothing to stop his actions.

"You're so far from inconspicuous...It's obvious what you're doing..."

"What, you mean looking for our forth party?"

Orochimaru shrank back in his seat, taking on a defeated, sulking posture that made him look even shorter beside Jiraiya. He gave up. The man had thought up an answer for everything, whether it was logical and valid or not. To argue would be pointless, like shouting at a brick wall...a brick wall that thought with its dick.

Their drinks had hardly been served by the time Jiraiya was popping out of his seat. The other two tried to protest, complaining about him ruining the evening as a team, but these arguments were met with reassurance that he wouldn't abandon his teammates, that he would return with his prize rather than leave with her. This was of little consolation to the other two, having only rented a single room between the three of them. Two beds or not, that wasn't something you wanted to be in the same room as, and Tsunade made it apparent that such actions would be met with forceful resistance.

The tall man left the remnants of his team behind with looks of aggravation as he made his way towards the bar, ready to mingle as he waited on his food. Tsunade sighed, putting a hand to her forehead and shaking her head slowly. "Can you believe him?"

"Did you expect anything else?" came the reply as Orochimaru set his head in his hand, eyes threatening to fall closed once more.

"You're not angry?"

"Frustrated I suppose. Surprised? Not at all, and frankly, I don't have the energy to be legitimately angry with him over something like this...It's in his nature. We're not ever going to be able to stop it, so why bother fighting it?"

He watched his teammate idly with his sleepy eyes for lack of anything better to do. He seemed to almost prowl...no that wasn't the right word. Prowl was something predatory. There was nothing predatory about Jiraiya. He was too good natured, gave off too warm of an aura...Mingled was a better word. He crossed from one end of the bar to another, making small talk with any fine specimen who happened to be seated alone, looking at all of his prospects. Orochimaru had to hand it to him, there was almost an art to how he went about choosing the person or people he would find himself spending an evening with.

He began to lose interest until he saw something rather out of the ordinary. As he was making his way from one side of the bar to the other, Jiraiya was stopped by a patron that had been sitting at the bar since before their arrival. Oh, this would be interesting. It wasn't every day that a man tried to hit on Jiraiya, but when it did happen, it always proved a little bit of amusement, even if there wasn't a scene made. Orochimaru only regretted not being closer to the bar to catch wind of what was being said.

The man in question was an interesting case. The first thing Orochimaru noticed about him was his dark violet hair that fell to his lower back, offset by the deep green kimono he wore over a slim frame. He leaned in close to Jiraiya as he spoke, his hands making slow, smooth gestures as he spoke. At one point, he slid a hand down Jiraiya's arm from shoulder to elbow, earning a dismissive laugh from his teammate.

That was enough to get Orochimaru to smile. This one was a little lively, might have had a bit too much to drink. But then the man seemed to look beyond Jiraiya, back at the table they were sitting at. Jiraiya's gaze followed for a moment before returning to the man, a thumb thrown back to point at them. A few more words were exchanged.

At this point, Tsunade had taken note of the interaction as well, a brow raised in slight disbelief. "...You don't think he's doing what I think he's doing, do you?"

"Sending someone back to us? That's always possible..." Probably sending him back to Tsuande. If that was the case, he must have been a real piece of work, someone that Jiraiya would eventually have to swoop in and 'rescue' her from. That was his game, trying to make Tsunade think that other men were pigs compared to him. If men were pigs, Jiraiya was king of swine when it came to rooting around where he wasn't wanted.

But this man didn't seem to fit the bill. He, first off, didn't look like the kind of man to seek a woman at all. He looked far to delicate himself, too well maintained. He was slight and willowy, and cocked his hip a bit too far out when he stood. He carried himself with confidence, but it wasn't alpha confidence. He was about the opposite of what Jiraiya would normally set Tsuande up with. Surely he wasn't...

"I don't think this one is for me, Orochi..." Tsuande noted with a wickedly amused smile teasing her lips. She was almost enjoying this too much, finding herself not the victim this time around.

The man soon walked past Jiraiya, heading most definitely for their table. Orochimaru watched the man for a moment, the way his body would sway with each step. He had a certain swagger to his stride, making his kimono sway in a manufactured breeze. His eyes were half-shut but held a certain glimmer of awareness, set straight on his destination. There was slight color in his cheeks, confirming that he had been drinking a little. Looking past him, Orochimaru's eyes met Jiraiya, pleading for some kind of sign. Confirming his suspicions, Jiraiya met his gaze and held up two encouraging thumbs. Jiraiya had decided to play wingman for a most unwilling party.

Orochimaru felt himself begin to sink in his seat more than he already managed to do, threatening to vanish under the table all together until Tsunade took his arm, yanking him back up a bit. "Oh, come on now! You don't have to like him, but don't be rude." There was a soft teasing in her voice, a merriment that he didn't quite like. He threw her a soft glare before turning back to the approaching man.

He was already upon the table, leaning on it slightly with a contented smile on his face. "Hello," he started off simply enough, helping himself to a seat beside Orochimaru, "You're Orochimaru-san, right?" There was a tone to his voice that said this was just a formality, that he already knew the answer.

"Y-yes..." Orochimaru managed to mutter, his confirmation made more clear by the nodding of his head than by the half-whisper he had offered him. He felt himself wanting to find an escape, to crawl in on himself until there was nothing left. It was such an alien feeling, having someone approach him like this, a stranger wanting his company. What did he want? And why?

"Your friend back there said you might need a little company tonight. I thought I might be just the man to provide it." he spoke very clearly, his hand slowly raising to his own chest to softly punctuate his words. His speech was such that Orochimaru thought he may have been wrong about the number of drinks in him.

"Oh, he did?" There was a trace of venom in his voice as he glanced back to Jiraiya, who was already turning his attention back to the ladies he had been tending to before. He knew the man was probably bending the truth of what he said. After all, it had been he that approached Jiraiya, not the other way around. It seemed more likely this man had asked if he needed company, and Jiraiya just nodded along. Either way, he had enough reason to spite Jiraiya for putting him in this situation.

"Yes he did, charming man you know, absolutely has a way with the ladies. I haven't seen someone able to keep the interest of so many women at once before. He's a gifted man." His gaze, which had slowly turned to look back at Jiraiya, returned to Orochimaru as his thin fingertips rose to his own lips. "Oh, forgive me. I show up at your table without even introducing myself. My name is Tetsuo."

Orochimaru gave another nod. Tetsuo, so that was his name, the name of this stranger who was insisting his company, the man who's gait said he had a bit much to drink, but whose words said otherwise. Maybe if he was silent, the man would go away, realizing that no, he in fact did not need company for the evening. He sat in silence, nursing his cup of tea and avoid the eyes of this strange man, only stealing a glance here or there to see if he was going to leave or not.

When he drew the cup to his lips, the man spoke up. "Oh, did you get the house brew here?"

"Yes. It was something hot to keep me warm. Why?"

There was a small scoff from the area that Orochimaru refused to look at as the man obviously found something amusing in his choice of pre-dinner drink. "Keeping you warm is about all that bland drink will do. You really shouldn't have been bothered with the tea here. The food is excellent, and the sake is pretty good too, but their tea is laughable."

At this, Orochimaru's natural cynicism kicked in, eyes darting to give the man a cool stare, something slightly accusatory. "Really? Are you a food critique or something of that nature? Or just a hobbyist?" If there was one thing he wouldn't hesitate on calling people out for, it was laymen trying to talk above their level of understanding in any field. Too often people would read an article or hear a story about a certain topic and overnight become an expert in the field. He took great joy in shutting these people down with his superior understanding of such topics. Sure, food and drink were not places he excelled, nor places he even attempted to study, but he would love to hear this man's reasoning for trying to talk as though he was an expert.

The man responded with a smile that served as a poor mask for the pride he took in his response. "Oh, neither. I actually run a tea house around here. I'm the sixth generation of my family to run it, and each generation was taught by the tea master of the previous. You could say that I know a little bit about what makes a fine tea...and frankly, they're serving a summer brew this late into fall. It would shock me if they even knew what they were doing wrong around here."

There eyes met and an odd understanding swept over him. Tetsuo had seen his glance, understood his stare. He knew that he was being accused of talking out of his league. The look that he returned was one of triumph at proving him wrong, a cocky stare that seemed to say 'I'm more of a professional than you thought.'

That was the first thing that caught Orochimaru's interest. The man was keen enough to catch the hidden meanings in the looks he would give, could take the subtle cues in his voice and interpret them accurately as well as return with subtle cues of his own. He could communicate on a level that went beyond what was actually said, not just in the subconscious way that everyone did, but with intentional action and inflection.

Orochimaru became much more engaged at this point, having something new and captivating to toy around with. How skilled was this man in the lost art of conversation? As the evening progressed, the answer became more and more clear as they skillfully swayed from topic to topic, the continuity never breaking as Orochimaru's own lips began to loosen. It was a well played dance, each able to guide the other away when they got close to steps they didn't know, keeping the conversation in areas where one wouldn't out talk the other for lack of knowledge.

When the food arrived, Orochimaru allowed Tetsuo to nibble on his omelet. He wanted to be polite, and at this point, certainly didn't want the man to leave. They lost track of time, and Tsunade lost interest in them. She ended up having the worst night of everyone, sitting alone with no one to talk to, her teammates too drawn by the allure of strangers to remember her.

At the end of the evening, when their food had long since gone cold and their bellies were full and their minds were sated with pleasantries, an arrangement was made. They decided to meet the next day for an outdoor lunch, Tetsuo promising to show him what good winter tea was like. At Tetsuo's departure, Orochimaru was overcome with an odd sensation...one of giddiness. He was eager for the lunch date and overcome with a small sense of infatuation...of captivation.


End file.
